In terms of impact on the Marvel Universe, this is a "small" story. No super-villains, no earth-threatening
menace, just a mystery about mobsters vying for a young woman's affection. Bruce Jones spins his tale over four
issues like a novelist, eschewing the handy tricks used by most comic book writers, relying on good characterization,
realistic dialogue, and a decent mystery. In Brooklyn, Steve Rogers visits his pal Sal, confined to a wheelchair since
being shot in the back by friendly fire during the Gulf War. Although this seems incidental to the story, it is in fact
integral. Cap agrees to free the beautiful young Pasha from Spano (modeled after Clark Gable,) a Las Vegas
mobster whom Cap mistakenly assumes is Pasha's lover. Cap falls in love with her. Wiser heads may question the
rapidity with which this happens, but there's no denying that it works.

In Vegas, rival factions are building two halves of a theme park, one featuring Captain America, the other the
Red Skull. The giant statues provide Steve Rude the excuse he needs to drive head first into Kirbyville. Not that the
Dude needs an excuse. He has always been influenced by Kirby. But where Kirby really couldn't draw a realistic
human figure, the Dude is a master. What we get here are Kirby-esque stances, expressions and lay-outs melded
with superior drawing ability. The Dude's attention to story detail-not fussy detail, but the little bits that actually add to
the story-is without peer. Take the brownstone he has created for Sal. Most artists would draw a rectangle on a wall
and call it a door. This brownstone has styling, dimension, and charm, and although used sparingly, provides a
bedrock sense of place.

There are some jarring elements. Jones places Las Vegas on the ocean so he can have yacht scenes. In the
final scene, Cap and friend are gazing at Ground Zero from the top of the Empire State Building at dusk. The sun
appears to be rising in the East. And inexplicably, Dude only provided cover art for the first book. The subsequent
covers, by an artist whose signature I can't read, are colorful and impressive but seem to belong to another story.

Mike Baron is the creator of the award winning comic book Nexus and
during his career has written an enormous variety of comics from The Flash to The Punisher. His first novel, Witchblade Demons has just been published and he is currently writing the Kiss comic for Dark Horse Comics.